WHY THE PARANORMAL CRAZE?

Why the paranormal craze?

By Laurie Champion Fotinos

There has always been a pre-occupation with all things paranormal in our society and many others. Over the past nine years that interest has grown into a craze of sorts. Is it just another fad that will hopefully die out, or is there more to our sudden fascination with the spirit world? Is the craze a fad or a symptom? Perhaps a symptom of people’s fear and unrest in troubled times?

Our society in America has gone through many changes. Right now we are at a dark point on many levels. Economic oppression is at an all time high in this country. Drug addiction is more widespread than ever before. Spiritual concerns have taken a back seat to technology and science. The country is divided in so many ways.

We live in a society that condones and even promotes all kinds of debauchery that was once considered less than appropriate. Religion is not the backbone of many family units as it once was. People are stressed out, struggling to survive and sensing a kind of hopelessness that leaves them lost and without any answers or solutions to the ritual assaults of life’s tyranny. Now more than ever before people need to believe there is more to life than just this struggle here in this corporeal existence. They need to know that there actually is some higher power hearing their prayers and an afterlife waiting for us when they die.

People have always tried to understand death, as part of trying to understand life. In a world where things seem to be falling apart, people are now questioning everything they once formerly comforted themselves with. With things on a steady decline they wonder if their faith and prayers are really capable of making a difference, and if there really is anyone there listening.

Just like books and movies, the paranormal is a wonderful distraction from all of our troubles, and what has become for some folks, a very scary reality, just trying to make it in the world today. The craze has its rot in the entertainment industry but I think the reason it took off and still gains impetus, goes deeper than that.

I think that people are looking for something to hold on to, something to provide hope and to offer a possible validation that there is more than just this life, and this struggle. They are looking to find some kind of spiritual assurance, in a very material, and very broken world.

Religion is failing now because people are looking for their own truths and not those of the old faiths, with all of their pre-conceived notions and restrictions on what we are allowed to explore and experience. Science has become a God in its own right, in our society, and man has become his own keeper in many ways. If you look around at the present state of affairs in our world, this new trend does not seem to be serving us well at all. We are worse off morally, financially, physically, and mentally than ever before. This is why more than half the population is on some kind of medication, prescribed or recreational just to deal with life. People in this day and age are more lost than ever before.

This is why I think that the paranormal craze is a symptom of a very lost and desperate society, trying hard to regain some sort of spiritual strength. The spirit is our essence; it is what we are made of. We are all spirits and will still be spirits when our physical body passes away. You don’t have to look for spirits; they are all around us all the time. It is funny that we seem to be more interested and accepting of the supposed evil spirit lurking in our closet, than the more benevolent and helpful spirits around us at any given time.

The fact that “demons” seem to be getting more interest and more press these days than angels, from the religious sector of the paranormal field is also a symptom. Man has always looked to blame his own sins and mistakes on some outside evil influence, rather than take a hard look at his own actions and darker nature. Maybe if we can accredit all the bad in the world to the “demons”, then it is not our fault and therefore we don’t have to look to ourselves to fix it. Then we can just appeal to a higher power and drive them all away. That limits our responsibility to a great degree, when it comes to cleaning up the mess we have made.

The spirit world and the afterlife is real, I have no doubts of that, after my journey as a haunts resolutionist. I also know that there are limits and dangers involved with working with the spirit world, especially if you are doing it for the wrong reasons. The current paranormal craze has become a big money maker, with paid ghost hunts, and pay for play investigations at historic places and such. This is exploitation of a world that is not our domain, and that was formerly held sacred by those with spiritual awareness. Spirit communication is not a science project folks. It is not an ethical means of making money and it is not a good outlet for thrill seeking. Let those who have ears hear…….